Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, once seen as vulnerable this coming November, is far outpacing her GOP opposition, a new Rasmussen Reports poll shows.
Gillibrand, who will defend her seat for the first time since being named by Gov. Paterson to complete Hillary Clinton's term, leads former Rep. Joe DioGuardi 51% to 28% and attorney Bruce Blakeman 51% to 31%. The incumbent Democrat earns 46% support against economist David Malpass, who gets 27% of the vote.
In the three match-ups, those who prefer some other candidate in the race range from 7% to 10%. Another 10% to 16% are undecided, Rasmussen found in a telephone survey of 500 likely NY voters on May 12.
The junior senator ostensibly would have been in hotter water had ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani or ex-Gov. George Pataki jumped into the race, but they didn't.
Just last month, Gillibrand's position was seen as far less stable: She had 40% support against a "generic" Republican candidate who picked up 39% support.
Gillibrand's still got work to do, however: She "barely edges all three Republicans among male voters, but holds substantial leads among female voters," the poll found.
Overall, about 18% of New York voters hold a very favorable opinion of Gillibrand, while 20% view her very unfavorably.
More from Rasmussen after the jump. Read on...
Among the Republican contenders, the poll found 6% view DioGuardi very favorably and 12% view him very unfavorably.
(Frankly, I'm sure many more people are familar with his daughter, Kara, an award-winning songwriter and a judge on "American Idol" and will be appearing at the state GOP convention, although probably not dressed quite this way.
Blakeman is seen very favorably by 3% and very unfavorably by 11%.
Just 1% have a very favorable view of Malpass, while 10% regard him very unfavorably.
About 7% have no opinion of Gillibrand, suggesting that she's getting her name out there a lot more.
The Republicans, however, seem to be a bit behind on the "getting to know you" portion of the show: Anywhere from 38% to 44% of NY voters don’t know enough about the GOP candidates to express any kind of opinion of them.
